Pfizer? More Like Pfffizer: Pharma Giant’s CEO Catches Covid for Second Time in 40 Days
© Sputnik / Vladimir Trefilov
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The New York-headquartered pharmaceutical and biotech company has faced growing criticism in recent months amid public concerns over the effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccines and that of Paxlovid, a pill prescribed to treat coronavirus which has caused dozens of high-profile reinfections, also known as ‘breakthrough’ cases.
Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday, with the diagnosis the second time in 40 days that the businessman has fallen ill from the disease.
“I have tested positive for COVID. I’m feeling well and symptom free. I’ve not had the new bivalent booster yet, as I was following CDC guidelines to wait 3 months since my previous COVID case...While we’ve made great progress, the virus is still with us,” Bourla tweeted.
Bourla previously reported getting Covid on August 15, saying at the time that he was “thankful to have received four doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine” and informing followers that he had started treatment with a course of Paxlovid.
Approved in late 2021, and prescribed en masse beginning in the spring and summer of 2022, Paxlovid began making headlines in August after a series of high profile officials including President Joe Biden, his wife Jill, and White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci caught Covid twice in quick succession after taking the drug and despite being vaxxed and boosted.
Pfizer has made a killing selling its coronavirus vaccines in the United States and to governments around the world, with the company’s profits soaring from $10.4 billion in Q3 2019 to $27.4 billion in Q2 of 2022.
Pfizer profits analysis by Statista.
© Photo : Statista
Last week, an analysis by Axios warned that a reduction in government demand for the pharma giant’s best-selling products threaten to make its Covid-related drugs less lucrative, with Bourla already announcing the company’s plans to branch out into treatments for other diseases, ranging from new mRNA-based flu vaccines to treatments for meningococcal disease, alopecia areata and cancers. A study published in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology earlier this month found that cancer rates in adults under 50 have seen a “drastic rise” globally since 1990, meaning Pfizer will have its work cut out for it in creating treatments (and making profits) in the years and decades to come.
Excited to see @POTUS inspiring action through the #CancerMoonshot Initiative. One way or another, cancer touches all our lives, and at @Pfizer, we know we must continue our work to advance breakthroughs to combat these deadly diseases. pic.twitter.com/q04SB1veH6
— Albert Bourla (@AlbertBourla) September 12, 2022
President Biden declared the Covid pandemic “over” in an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes last week, sparking outrage among some segments of the Pfizer-sponsored media and prompting the White House to walk back his comments and to suggest that what the president meant to say was that the pandemic had become “more manageable.”
